HEART
by Iland Girl
Summary: It took a lot to make me realize I was losing my mind. No, scratch that- it took a lot- little?- of Jack Frost for me to realize. C'mon, how many times have you seen a half frozen looking boy float around your room, nagging for you to talk to him? Sometimes I wonder if I should believe, other times, I'm glad I do. OC
1. Chapter 1

_Ever get that strange ache? _

_It's like a leech is trying to eat its way out of your chest. _

_The vile thing, it makes you feel. _

_It beats, pounding on your ribs. _

_Just when you need it to stop, for it to stay strong, it wavers. _

_The traitor torments you, pounding like a drum. _

_Thu-thump, that's all it does. _

_This vile thing reminds us- we're still alive. _

_It's called a **HEART.**_

* * *

_"For those who forgot how to believe."_

* * *

**Chapter 1  
**

_'Dare To Believe'_

* * *

_I've never been one for reality. _

_It's so over played, a 'been there, done that' vibe that just puts me down. For me, the larger, the crazier, the better. _

_Which is why, at the tender age of ten, my parents taught me about all sorts of things in the world. Some were real, true stories, and others fantasy. My parents had avoided telling me regular stories, like religion and holidays (even though I had heard of them in school and such), because they wanted me to truly understand what it was we were doing at the time. To see it in an unbiased light and decide for myself what I felt about the holidays and such._

_I read books, and watched movies, because in those places I could get away. To be completely honest, I hated reality. _

_It was so..._

_Boring._

_Straight to the point. _

_Narrow minded. _

_Like the majority of my classmates. _

_Anyway, as I grew older, I found my nose further in a book, so full of joy. I loved the worlds I could create with my own imagination, because it was fun. I had fun making things up- passwords, puzzles, anything really. It was all so...enlightening. _

_Then middle school came. _

_In elementary, I was too busy learning about the world to really care what others were doing, until it was time for us to share one fact about ourselves. This one kid, I forgot his name- but anyway, he stood up and said a nasty little thing. _

_"I don't believe in the Easter Bunny!" _

_That set me off. What on Earth was wrong with this boy? Announcing such a thing to the class last year and he would've been mocked. Now? It was okay, because we were in middle school, because was were 'grown up'._

_I didn't like it. _

_The next boy stood up. _

_"Anyone who believes in Santa Claus isn't in middle school, they should go back to preschool!" _

_And the teacher just sat there, sighing. Did this happen every year? _

_To my dismay, many others stood up, frowning, admitting they didn't believe. They didn't believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, Mr. Sandman, and many others. I just sat there, frowning for the longest time. _

_Why wouldn't you believe, just because someone said not to...? _

_I didn't understand. _

_It was my turn to stand up, the third last child. I looked to the two others sitting to my right, they looked scared and small compared to the rest of us, and then to my class. _

_"My name is Lucy Wells, and I believe in Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Tooth Fairy, and Sandman." _

_With that, I sat down. _

_Spit balls instantly came flying, but between the teacher trying to stop the rats and myself keeping cool, I hardly noticed. Except when one fell into my hair, that was out of bounds. _

_Then the craziest thing happened. _

_"My name is Nikka Wolish! And I believe too!" The girl next to me called. My eyes widened at her, never would I have thought this would happen. She was... standing up for herself? I smiled up at her, she looked down at me, but she looked so nervous too. _

_"My name is Adam Zarc and I believe too!" _

_My eyes widened as I was suddenly sandwiched between two bodies, the boy and girl hugging me tightly. _

_Did I just... make friends? _

_It had never happened before, I didn't know what to do. _

_There was laughter from one of the boys, that set me right off then as I slung an arm around each of them. _

_"Aw yeah! We're the Believers! Better believe buddy!" I shouted, getting scolded by the useless teacher in the process. _

_When I got home that night, and explain it to my parents, I wished I owned a camera. While a picture might be worth a thousand words, this one was worth millions._

"And that is where my story began." I said, shutting the book. The little blonde looked up at me with wide eyes, looking at me with such wonder. I laughed, loving how adorable she looked.

"Tell me more Miss Wells! Tell me more!" She insisted, her wide eyes looking on at me with so much wonder. I beamed, agreeing with her instantly.

"Well, you better be ready! Things got a little... interesting after that."

"Oh?!"

"I was Eighteen when things really got interesting, just moved to a new town, without my duo to back me up, and I had to face the burdens of college alone. That was when it happened."

"When what happened Miss Lucy?!" She asked, ever so excited. I laughed.

"When I met Jack Frost!"

* * *

**_And there you have it folks! My very first attempt at writing a ROTG fanfic! _**

**_Well, I figured opening with a small story before going back to my regular works would be good. I am quite a bit rusty!_**

**_Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed! Will update once I get a review...if any... . _**

**_Cheers!_**

**_Iland Girl_**


	2. Chapter 2

_Ever get that strange ache? _

_It's like a leech is trying to eat its way out of your chest. _

_The vile thing, it makes you feel. _

_It beats, pounding on your ribs. _

_Just when you need it to stop, for it to stay strong, it wavers. _

_The traitor torments you, pounding like a drum. _

_Thu-thump, that's all it does. _

_This vile thing reminds us- we're still alive. _

_It's called a **HEART.**_

* * *

_"For those who forgot how to believe."_

* * *

**Chapter 2  
**

_'I Believe'_

* * *

_"I was Eighteen when things really got interesting, just moved to a new town, without my duo to back me up, and I had to face the burdens of college alone. That was when it happened."_

_"When what happened Miss Lucy?!" She asked, ever so excited. I laughed._

_"When I met Jack Frost!"_

"Lucy, you can't stay in the car forever!"

My Mother was exasperated with me. Really, I wouldn't blame her, heads would've rolled if I had done such things to anybody else! My Mum was always patient with me though, and loving, outright loving.

"I can if it means going home." I muttered, curled up uncomfortably in the back seat of our van. My eyes shut tight, I refused to look at the town, at the place I would be calling the 'H' word until I could afford to move out. Unfortunately, that would be a very long time.

"Lucy," My Father's deep voice began calmly. "I thought you were a Believer?"

The Believers, an absolutely moronic, merit-less, loving trio of a group I and my two best friends had begun on the first day of Middle School. My first friends, at first I sought to live in one of their closets, but Adam was going away to China for a year and Nikka was off to Yale because she had the intelligence to _teach_ at a place like that.

My head ached, so did my heart. I missed my friends, they were far out of my grasp, the both of them. In my hands I clenched a small pendant. A homemade trinket that Adam had made before we parted. Three corners to the triangle, in homage to our favorite game, each saying a different Latin word.

_Libertas_

_Veritas_

_Aequitas_

Libertas, freedom, was my logo. I was the strong willed woman who refused to let others put me in my place. Often times I was disliked for my mouth, and I'll be the first to admit I wasn't exactly kind to most, but I protected my friends.

"I am a Believer," I insisted, gripping the pendant a bit tighter as I curled in more. "I just don't want to see where I am."

"But Lucy, a true Believer doesn't need to see to know. Isn't that what you told me?" My Dad was chuckling softly, because he was humored, because he knew me better than anybody.

To him, I was still the little child he'd held, I would always be the eight year old girl, full of wonder and adventure. There would never be a day that my Dad wouldn't look at me like that. He loved me for all my faults, he loved me for who I was, not what I was.

An intruder.

I opened my eyes then, looking up into the warm brown of his. A smile graced my lips then as I tried to see things his way. He knew, I was a child at heart, but I was also more than capable of intellectual conversation. Looking around, I tried to absorb in my surroundings.

It was flat, not a hill in sight, with quite a few houses plopped randomly without order down the side street. Our house wasn't large, but the white accents and green borders gave it a summer feeling despite it being late fall.

It was also a lot colder here, the temperature was so cold that my Dad's breath was visible to me. He smiled, holding out his hand for me to take. I grinned up at him, taking hold of it as he helped me out of the car.

I am eighteen, and I still act like I'm five, so the moment I saw a pile of leaves in the yard- and my little brother Jared mulling through them- my eyes lit up and I took a running start. A squeal left Jared's throat as I landed on top of him in the great pile of leaves. Jared and I played while our parents just laughed before heading inside. It was only when a small pebble hit both of our heads that we stopped.

Standing on the sidewalk was Markus, the 'tween' of the family. Seriously, do all thirteen year-old boys and girls believe they're kings of the castle or something? I narrowed my eyes at his slitted grey ones. He was not amused.

"Aren't you supposed to be eighteen? Why don't you act like one then?"

Ah, there it was, the maturity factor. Markus had been called a little kid by one of our neighbors a couple of weeks before we moved, and ever since then he decided being a little kid was taboo. It was a bad thing to be free to do what you wanted, apparently.

"I am, it's called Carpe Diem. Y'know, living in the moment?" I challenged, grinning like a Cheshire cat. He absolutely hated my outlook on life, that I always had a way out of every situation. An answer to every question, although most were highly illogical.

Markus snorted, then turned to skulk off. He would probably choose the bedroom hidden away at the back of the house, just to seem more mysterious. A smirk on my face, I turned to Jared who looked at me with confusion. We both grinned, leaping back into the pile of leaves again.

* * *

Dinner was a bit quiet, all of us were skeptical about what was going on around us. I swear I saw the walls moving, Mum said I was just dizzy from playing in the leaves all day. She was right, I was so tired that I barely had the energy to eat my veggies!

...Okay, Mum didn't buy that either, but she did let me have dessert still even though I was so tired.

It was quiet for a long time, until Jared jumped up from his chair to look at the window. I raised a brow, but when I saw the intricate patterns on the glass, I too grinned before coming to stand next to the ten year old.

"Who did this Lucy?" Jared asked, awed by the designs. He always believed, like myself, but often times he wanted to point at certain events being a select entity. I rubbed my chin, thinking deeply on it.

"Well, we're heading into winter, and it is frost. Perhaps it is a spirit of winter?" I asked myself, smiling down to Jared. He beamed again.

"Santa Claus?!" He asked, I just laughed.

"No, Santa wouldn't do this," I looked back to the glass, noticing the pattern, gently tracing it with my finger. It was so cold, I liked it, I loved the cold. As a person who was always warm, feeling cold was actually refreshing every now and again.

"You people are ridiculous." Markus muttered. Jared and I turned simultaneously to stick our tongue out at him.

"Perhaps it is Jack Frost?" My Dad offered. I raised a brow, uncertain of who they were talking about.

"Jack Frost?" I asked, looking between a confused Jared and my Father as the older collected dishes.

"My dad used to tell me about him all the time. Jack Frost, the mischievous winter spirit that came around at night to give you frostbite." Mother added, Dad laughed though, making me wonder whether they just made it up.

"Jack Frost..." Jared tested out on his own. I smiled, sitting on the counter and looking at the intricate designs. The lull came to an abrupt end when Markus slammed his plates down on the table. My eyes widened when he did so.

"You guys are crazy! Do you really believe some stupid spirit came to paint some dumb designs on our window? It's frost! It happens all the time! You don't really think there's such a thing as him or Santa Claus, do you?!" Markus growled out.

It went quiet for a moment, I looked to my parents and realized, my parents didn't actually believe either. They were just playing along, but then what about Jared? Looking down, I saw him staring at Markus with wide, shocked eyes. Perhaps the person who has the biggest impact on the child wasn't myself, but his older brother Marcus.

"Y'know," I began, putting a hand on Jared's shoulder. Markus and I made eye contact then, a deep frown on my face. "What you just said? I can't think of a crueler insult to say to any child."

My voice was hoarse, barely a whisper as I looked to my family. My mother turned to look at Marcus, who in turn glared at me before storming off to his room. Father sighed, I knew it was hard for them. As non-believers, they wanted to go with what they knew, but they loved us too much to put us down.

"I'm going to bed." Jared began, pulling away from my hand. I looked at him, feeling my own eyes droop.

"I'll tuck you in." I said, kissing both my parent's cheeks before scampering off as well. I went to my room to pull my pj's on before heading to Jared's room. He was sitting there, looking out his unfrosted window, looking at the moon.

"Luce," He began as I sat on his bed. "Do you still really believe?"

I wanted to say that it shouldn't matter, that his choice should be unbiased, but when I saw those doe eyes I melted. He was so full of wonder, and I knew, he still believed. I smiled, kissing his forehead before tucking him under his blankets.

"I will always believe, and that, my good sir, is a promise I will always keep." I said confidently. Jared smiled up at me, grinning, before I stood up and began to walk out. When I shut the door though, I glanced up to the window. The frosted glass shining with the moon in the background.

On my adventure back to my room, upstairs and just one door closer than Markus' I was greeted with Mister Moody on the staircase. A grin stretched on my lips as I noticed the put off expression he held.

"Well if it isn't Mister Sunshine himself. Way to go, you know how to double your brother's self esteem!" I said, patting his head before walking up the steps.

"Why do you believe?" He began, making me hesitate and look down at him. He hadn't moved from where he sat, curled on the bottom step.

"Hm?"

"Do you really think a fat and jolly man can deliver presents all around the world? Or that a rabbit can give you Easter Eggs and hide enough for everyone? The Tooth Fairy? Don't even get me started!" He stood up and turned to look at me, glaring. "So why, why would you put down your self by believing in these ridiculous fantasies?!"

I was quiet for a while after that, thinking about what he said. Why did I believe? I thought back to when I began to believe, when I was in my single digits, other emotions came back too. The cold, the hunger, the emptiness.

"Because..." I began, trailing off, when did I truly start to believe?

"Because...?" Markus egged on. I thought about it long and hard then, remembering when I first heard stories of Easter and Christmas, what they stood for too.

"Because," I said confidently, thinking of the one thing that made me believe. "Because the moon told me so."

Marcus just stared at me for a moment, and then he broke into laughter.

"The m- oh that's just rich!" He laughed, and I'll admit, I did too.

"Yeah, I know right? I thought it was crazy too!" I admitted, thinking on it. Never did I lie about it, but saying it out loud made me question my sanity even more.

"So seriously, why?" Marcus began again, still making small jokes about the moon.

"No seriously, the moon told me so." I said again, instantly he quieted down a bit before frowning.

"Y'know Luce, you're a great older sibling and all, but sometimes I think you take this being a kid thing too far. I mean look at me! I stopped believing a long time ago-" "I was only a month." "-and I'm still fine! Look at Jared, do you want him to be laughed at like you were growing up?"

To this I took offense, but I wouldn't show it. Stubborn should've been my middle name, it was the only name that would really suit me. Instead, I gave him a wolfish grin before taking a few steps closer on the stairs to get up in his face.

"Truth be told, I'd laugh at you the most," He backed up at that. "You, who changed your whole wardrobe to fit in. You, who said skating is 'uncool' for guys. You, who stopped believing because someone in class said it was for little kids."

"How did you know?!" He sounded surprised, but I just shook my head.

"That's how it always seems to end these days," I said quietly, before grinning. "But I won't follow the herd. I'm a lone wolf y'know! So I won't stop believing, even if it is dumb and uncool. I like to be different, it's refreshing really. And I hope, one day, you look back on this whole thing, and you realize that who you are is more important than who people want you to be."

Markus looked furious then, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, some believer, you don't even believe in everyone, just those who give you something good in return for a tooth or kindness or discovery." Markus said flatly. Oh that was it, it was on now!

"Fine! I believe Santa, Bunny, Tooth, Sandman, and... and..." I tried to think, but who else was there that I knew of? I thought back to dinner, grinning, before placing my hand on my chest.

"And Jack Frost. I solemnly swear that I believe in all of these people, because really, isn't it more interesting than boring science?"

Marcus smacked his forehead.

"I'm related to a psycho, this is so not going to go well at school."

"Well, at least you acknowledge my existence."

* * *

**_Whoocha! Look at me go! I'm so behind in Bio right now, but I just couldn't resist putting this up!  
_**

**_Next chapter has Jack in it! So you all better review! If you do, I'm sure Jack would be glad to share his spot light... for a moment..._**

**_Cheers!_**

**_Iland Girl_**


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